TotTE Episode 3: Blast from The Past
by Experiment 442
Summary: Hunting. Whatever happened, he would hunt. His target Wraith. His food. His prey. They fear him. When he approached, they ran. All is not as it seems when The Past comes hurtling towards the Tau'ri.
1. Chapter 1

The gate activated and a whoosh of blue stuff came out. He didn't remember what the stuff was called, only remembered it was blue. He didn't see colour anymore. He saw sounds, smells, blood. He could see the movement of a person walking out of the gate. He saw the vibrations through the air. Wraith. He jumped out and started his attack. Grappled its neck and twisted it around so it faced the other way. He took out his knife and took what he wanted. The pouch. It was the stuff he needed. He took out the needle and punctured the pouch with it. He put it down his mouth and swallowed. It would keep him like this, alive. He saw the noise of the gate being dialled from another place.

Four people walked out. He hadn't seen people in a long time. What should he do? Walk over and say hi like he used to? No! They would kill him. He took the knife and tightened his grip. Two of them shouted when they saw him. He saw the sounds of electricity fly through the air to meet him. He dodged. Zets? No, zats. That was it, zats. They stunned once and killed on two.

He ran at them and jumped at the first one. It was a girl. She zatted him but it did nothing. She zatted him again and he stumbled back. She did it twice more and he felt himself fall over. He was still alive.

"Is that-" The female started.

"Yeah, damn, that's Ford." A male replied. He sounded familiar. A friend maybe? He had no friends. They'd left him years ago. He'd been alone. They would kill him. He had to get up. He had to run. But he couldn't. Two beefy arms pulled him up and pulled him away from the gate. He closed his eyes.

"We found him." John was saying to himself. "We found him and he just went berserk." Ford was in the observation room. They had scanned him and found several enzyme packs in his stomach. He was swallowing them now. He looked worse on the outside. His eyes were completely black with white in the centre. His muscles were, apparently, six times larger than human muscles should be. And he was dying. His heart had had enough of the enzyme and was giving up. "So we've lost him completely?"

"He's half wraith!" One of the doctors cried out. "It means the retro virus might work!"

"We've never tried it on a half human!" Another shouted. "It could make him turn into a wraith."

"Or it would kill him." A third one said.

"But if he turns into a wraith, we could use it again right?" John asked. As he received looks of stupidity he said, "It might work?"

"It might. Or it might not." The doctor replied.

"He's already dying. It's the least we can do." John put his hands on the glass and looked into the room.

His chest rose up and down so quickly it could make someone dizzy by watching. He looked away and left the room.

There was a frantic tapping at John's office door. When he finally said, "come in." He expected to see a hole in it. It was a young lieutenant, he looked as if he'd run for twenty miles.

He said, "He's human sir." In between gasps, then added, "And talking."

John got up and nearly fainted. He sat down again then stood up and left his office. Ten meters from his door he broke into a run.

"So it took two days." John said. "And you're human again." He was talking to ford through a glass screen. Ford's eyes were normal. His muscles had gone down and his heart rate was back to normal. He still looked edgy though.

"It's good to be back." Ford said. "I remember it all. It felt good at the time, but some of the things I did." He pulled a disgusted face as if remembering something from the past. He swallowed. "When will I be allowed out?"

"When they're sure you're back to normal." John smiled. "It's good to have you back."

"You'll understand if I ask for a few months leave sir?" He asked. "I haven't seen home, as in Earth, in over three years."

"If we'd found you a week ago, you would have been around for Christmas."John chuckled. "A lot's changed though. I'll fill you in later."

"Aren't you staying?" Ford asked. "Can I at least have something to eat?"

"You just had something."

"It's not really what you call food though." Ford mused. "A steak?"

"I'll see what I can do buddy."

"See you later." Ford sat down on the side of his bed and looked around.

"See you later." John said as he left the observation room. He walked down the hallway towards the gate room and looked out over the gate. "You've finally brought something good back for once." He said as he leaned against the back wall. A sudden idea came to him and he went to find O'Neil and Teal'c.

"It's been done before." O'Neil said. "Trust me, we've done it." They were in the gate room's control room. Teal'c was standing in a corner and O'Neil was sitting in a chair. John was leaning against a wall.

"Indeed." Teal'c said. "Are you familiar with the film Groundhog Day?"

"Yeah,"

"Imagine that, but with the Stargate, and with Teal'c getting hit in the face with a door every time it reset." O'Neil smiled. "We also did other things which we've wanted to do for years."

"I can probably guess." John said as he looked at the gate.

"But if you have golf clubs." Jack said. "Then we shall do it." He got up and started to leave. "I bid you farewell."

Teal'c bowed and left. Where was he going to get golf clubs?

"No I did not bring golf clubs with me." McKay moaned. "Why would I bring them? I'm here to help sort out technology. Anyway, Todd's paid us a visit."

"What?" Sheppard looked around.

"No, he sent us a gift." McKay pointed to a small device with symbols on its side. Roughly the same size as a tennis ball, it had octagonal faces with spikes forming on every edge. "It's the most advanced thing he's given us."

"More advanced than a ZPM?" Sheppard asked.

"Well, no. But advanced in wraith technology." He pushed one of the faces and it inverted then sort of exploded and light started to shine out of it. It formed above into a galaxy. "This locates huge power sources when they're active."

"So?" Sheppard asked as he looked around as the hologram.

"It can show us where more ZedPMs are." He pressed another face and it zoomed in. "There is one here." He pointed to a small dot next to a large dot. "That's a sun." He said quickly before John could ask. "There are five here." He pressed another face and it moved to another system. "And there are ten here." He pressed another face and it, again, moved.

"So why don't we get them?" Sheppard asked. Knowing full well Rodney was waiting for it.

"Because, it also shows wraith ships." He pressed two faces at the same time and the ten dots disappeared. But were replaced by several hundred large dots. "We've found all their major shipyards."

"Rodney." Sheppard said. "You don't seem to understand that the wraith have at least ten ZPMs in their possession."

His face went blank.

"Show me a galactic view with the wraith ships and ZPMs." Sheppard ordered.

"Ok." He pressed three faces and the image zoomed out. "Oh crap."


	2. Chapter 2

"There are hundreds if not thousands of hives out there." Woolsey exclaimed. "How did they get so many ZPMs?"

"We don't know." McKay said. "But we know where there's a stockpile of them."

"Where?" Woolsey asked. "Because we're going to need as many as we can get to handle that." He pointed to the holographic display. "Are we sure this is real-time?"

"Positive." McKay said. "John sent the Odyssey out with a ZedPM and back again. It came up on the hologram."

"I see." Woolsey sat down, and for the first time ever banged his head on the table. "I guess we know how awful the ancients were at organising their technology now." He lifted his head and stood up. "Find these ZPMs and bring them back ASAP. We need these if we want to compete with that." He pointed to the large cluster of wraith ships. "You have authority to bring whatever you deem necessary. Of course Sheppard has to approve of it."

"I told you its fun Aiden." Sheppard said as he swung the golf club and the small white ball went flying through the event horizon. "You know, this planet is more than a thousand light years away."

"That must a new world record for sure." Aiden set his ball down and did the same as John had done, but his ball went through close to the top of the gate. "I'll get back in my game eventually."

"Shouldn't you be working?" The speakers announced General O'Neil's presence in the control room belonging to the gate. "Or should I take charge?"

"Shut it off." Sheppard ordered. The gate closed with a hiss. Aiden picked up the clubs and they walked out of the gate room. They reached the observation deck to find O'Neil with Teal'c.

"Its fun, isn't it?" O'Neil asked. "But only do it when you're stuck in a time paradox." He clapped his hand on John's back and left the control room. Teal'c followed suit.

"When do you want to head off?" Sheppard asked. "I managed to get two months off you."

"Thanks mate," He looked at the gate. "I'll get my stuff and I'll head back as soon as I can."

"Go on then." Sheppard watched as his long time friend headed off the same way O'Neil and Teal'c had gone.

He sat down and closed his eyes. He opened them again and stood up. Ford was standing there with his stuff.

"Did you just fall asleep on the job?" Aiden asked.

John chuckled. "It's been a stressful time. How long was I out?"

"Less than five minutes." He said. "I don't have that much stuff anymore."

John smiled and looked to the gate technician who was staring at them. "Does Earth know we're sending back one of our own?"

"Yes sir." He piped. "I sent them your message as soon as I received it."

"Good." He turned to look over the gate and its creepy glory. "Dial it up then."

The human figure who stepped through the gate was probably the last Sam expected to see. Aiden Ford, 'the druggy', as a few people had called him nastily. She'd never met him, but she knew he'd been rouge for a while. He stepped through the gate and looked around. Two guards walked up to him and began the search.

"Sorry, but its standard now." Walter said over the intercom. "Welcome back to Earth Lieutenant Ford."

"Haven't been called Lieutenant in a while." He whistled. "I see you brought in some big guns while I was away."

Two new inserts, the appropriately named, GL avenger, had been installed to either side of the gate as means of secondary defence. The old fifty calibre mounted were starting to gather dust.

Walter chuckled. "It's an improvement." He said. "We needed the extra firepower."

"Where'd the iris go?" Ford asked as his gaze went over the gate.

"It's shielded now."

Ford whistled again. "Cool." He started down the ramp and went through the left bulkhead.

"How are you handling Woolsey?" Jack asked as he and John walked through the many halls of the base. "He seems different to me somehow."

"He snapped when half the army left." John said. "He was a sobering wreck for about ten minutes and he's trying to keep calm that everything is falling down around him."

"The guy needs a girl." Jack said. "Speaking of relationships..." He let the sentence lag on for a while.

"I'm allowing it; Woolsey doesn't care for small matters like that." They turned a corner and passed a shadow group in cloak. He knew because one of them tapped him on the shoulder.

"Did you just feel something?" Jack asked looking around, his hand on his pistol.

"It's just the shadows." John said.

"Ah, you're ship retaking teams." He said looking around with squinted eyes. "If I could, I'd sign up. But being a general is more like a desk job. You do get to do whatever you want though."

"How are you doing with Sam then?" John asked, wondering if he was entering the territory of Jack's mind which had barbed wire and mines everywhere.

"Not too well." He admitted. "Long distance relationships don't really work." He shrugged.

John hummed in agreement.

"Still, you need to get someone John." Jack, being slightly taller than John, looked down on him. It seemed in his mid-age he had started to grow again. "Got your eyes on anyone?"

"I've been working," John said. "Running a war with a snapped IOA representative isn't all it's cranked up to be." They turned another corner and headed for the mess hall. "So not really."

"Not really?" Jack asked, unconvinced. "Or not telling?"

"It probably wouldn't work out." John said as he picked up a tray and started to dish out some 'food'. "I need to order some better food for the base."

"Probably wouldn't work?" Jack asked, now using everything John put out grammatically wrong to his advantage. "Who is it?"

"I really can't tell you, you'll be, pissed." John said, now forming a plan to stop the conversation with a joke.

"Try me." Jack said.

"Car-"

"You're kidding right?" Jack said, all signs of humour in his face gone.

"Yeah, it was just a joke."

"Good, 'cause if it was." He made his face creepily happy. "I'd kill you."

Starting to get uncomfortable, John walked over to his team sitting at one of the tables. He must have stepped on a mine.


	3. Chapter 3

Ford sat in his car with a bunch of flowers. He could have gotten chocolates, but he decided flowers were better. This was his grandma. He felt slightly uncomfortable and pulled the flap with the mirror down. He sorted out his hair for nearly the tenth time and took a deep breath.

He left the car and headed for the front door. He hands were shaking. He'd killed wraith for crying out loud! Why was he so nervous? Because they thought he was dead. It hit him like a bullet. The door opened and a man in his mid twenties opened the door.

"Is there something I can do for you?" The man asked.

"Um, I must have the wrong house number."

"Wait a second, I've seen you before." He snapped his fingers and chuckled. "You're the one from the photos!"

"What?"

"She said you'd gone MIA, missing in action?"

"Yeah, I, uh, it's classified."

"I see." He face went sombre. "You should come in. She left some things for you."

Ford finally grasped what he was meaning. He couldn't believe it, he wouldn't. Then he felt a pain in his chest. It wasn't emotional, it was a real pain. He felt shooting pains in his arm. He went to his knees and clutched his head.

"Honey!" The man shouted into the house. "Call an ambulance!"

Fords eyes flashed open. The light blazed his vision and he instinctively closed them again. He blinked several times and got used to the light. He was in a medical room. There was a large window overlooking a park to his left and two other beds to his right, both empty. A small television sat in the right topmost corner of the room playing an ongoing static. A nurse entered and bashed the side with her hand. It turned off and she swore.

"Hey, I was watching that." He said sarcastically, but his voice remained a croak. He reassured it with a slight smile and the nurse smiled back. She left the room and the door shut.

The door slammed open and a man in a white suite walked in. He prowled across the room with such ungraceful posture, he wasn't sure if it was a man pretending to be a doctor or not.

"How did you survive?" He pointed a finger at Ford and rubbed it around. "You ruptured all the main arteries leading to your heart and you survived. This is either a miracle, or you've been upgraded somehow. You're not one of those, who did the news put it, replicaterers are you?"

"What?" Ford asked. "I ruptured all the main arteries?"

"Yes!" He cried. "How?" He continued. "How did you do it? Has the military been holding out on medicine? If they have the IPA will have a boot up their arse."

"It's IOA. And give 'em one from me as well." He looked around and saw a commotion from the door. The nurse that had been in here earlier was staring blandly at him.

"So you were with that spacegate command." He said.

"Stargate." He corrected. "And I never knew it was public knowledge."

"This war in another galaxy is all over the news." He said as he turned the television on. He flicked it to a news channel and saw the great city of towering buildings with many planes flying around them. No, not planes, cars.

"No one told me back to the future was on." He said out loud. He became serious. "I went MIA years ago."

The doctor tried to put words together and then came out with. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Going through the sungate-"

"Stargate." Ford corrected again. "It's Stargate, and it's like getting shot several times."

"So I assume these, phantoms took you?"

"Wraith, and no." He sighed. "I was in a battle with one of their hive ships and managed to survive by stealing one of their fighters. Then I spent the next few years trying to get back to command." He tried not to give too much away, he didn't know how much had been given already.

"Here's the latest story." The doctor turned the volume up.

"Half of the USSF's army vanishes." The newsreader, female, read from her script. "It has now been released that half of the ground forces fighting this unknown enemy in the so called 'Pegasus Galaxy' and gone missing. The IOA released a statement earlier today."

"We have been informed that half the army has gone missing." A man in a dark suite said. "We are not allowed to release information due to the wellbeing of our people."

"A British army also went missing some months ago-" The television went to static.

"Blasted thing!" He shouted in outrage. "Do you understand now? They told us about their games of putting us in danger. The IOA is better than all of them though. They have the guts to tell us."

"The IOA is responsible for most of the troubles we had." Ford complained. "We were following orders from our superiors and the IOA stuck their noses where they didn't belong."

"Arg!" He left the room, but stopped by the nurse.

She walked in and pretended to change his drip.

"My brother is with that army, he sent us a letter about what happened." She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "I'll distract him. He wants to turn you over to the authorities."

She started to walk out then motioned him to follow.

"There's an elevator at the end of the hall." She pointed left. "Ground floor. They won't let you out if they notice you. You'll have to be sneaky."

"What's your name?" Ford asked as he looked down the corridor.

"Katie Mellor." Ford nearly fell over. "What? You know him?"

"Yeah, he's in an elite team at the moment."

"Go!" She urged quietly.

She looked over his charts and found his name. Aiden Ford. She wrote it down and left the room, acting nervous. She looked frantically from left to right.

"He's gone!" She shouted. "Doctor Nevins! He's gone!"

Doctor Nevins appeared from a storage room and ran passed her to the room. He peaked his head in and banged it against the wall.

She tried, failing happily, to suppress a smile.

"When I write the report I'm telling them that you let him escape." The doctor growled as he noticed her smile. "You'd loose your job and you would never, ever, be accepted in another medical facility in this galaxy!"

"I'm sure they'll need medics in Pegasus doctor." She turned around and walked off. She had planned to go into the armed forces anyway. With the recent losses, they were putting new recruits through training faster and shipping them off to Pegasus. A call to anyone with medical experience was urgently needed anyway, according to the websites she had been on.

She threw her scrub into the bin and washed her hands in the toilet. Her friends asked her where she was going, she didn't reply. It was more than likely she'd be killed, or go missing, in action.

Ford drove. He wasn't being chased or anything. But he drove like he was. If a police car saw him, he'd probably be stunned or 'pulsed', as someone had put it to him. He liked the fact the underground works here hadn't changed much. He met up with one of his contacts and got himself a car. It was an old one, there were still roads in place, but they were nearly empty. It was literally old people on here now. People who didn't get their new licence to fly in the sky-lanes. Half the time it was auto-piloted, according to his contact, though.

He didn't go in the sky though. He didn't know how the sky-lanes worked. From how long John had been away, he was probably oblivious to it all.

Ford smiled. He'd met John Mellor's sister. She was hot too. He wasn't surprised if she lost her job. He'd never talked about his life at home, they'd only met once actually. He came off as tough and aggressive at first. The he eased up and turned into someone very much like McKay, but without all the talking, and being smart. He was basically a cool McKay.

He turned into the street where he knew he had parked his car. It was still there. He stopped next to it and rummaged his pockets. His palm met his face. He was wearing completely different garments. His stuff was probably somewhere far away. He looked down the road both ways. When he knew the coast was clear, he elbowed the glass in. It was rental as well.

He was in a hurry though. The nearest Stargate was over a hundred miles away. He turned the car around and it hit something behind him. He looked and saw nothing. He went forward and walked over to the invisible thing. He felt around for a second, wondering if it was what he thought it was.

When he reached the other side he heard a hissing noise. It was like staring into a door, with no doorframe. He stepped in and looked around. The pilot area had a man with short black hair sitting in pilot's seat. He pointed to the seat and looked at Ford.

"You died." Sheppard said. "The chip we put in you went offline three weeks ago."

"Three weeks?" Ford asked in outrage. "I was out for three weeks?"

"What do you mean?" John asked as he turned in his seat. "You didn't turn it off?"

"I didn't know you put one in me." He countered.

"Mine's here." He pointed to the side of his neck. "They're standard in times of war." He closed the rear ramp and started to take off. "Earth's changed a lot since the last time I was here."

"How long ago was that?"

"Years." He admitted. "Four, years."

"So in four years they did all this?"

"To earth its been more like eight." John said. "They picked the time-dilation device from the asgard core. Building takes a matter of seconds now."

"Why don't we use that on the ships?"

"We are." John replied. "It's the resources we're having trouble with."

"Oh." Ford reclined in his seat. "So how'd you-"

"You haven't told me what happened yet." John insisted.

"I had a heart attack." Ford said. "My," He paused, "my family is gone." He stared John in the eye. "I don't have a life anymore. Thanks to years of being MIA I have no life here on Earth."

"You and everyone fighting the wraith, including me." He sat up and looked around. "You know in the matrix, when the robots took over?"

"Yeah." Ford said.

"Ever get the feeling it's just that?" He turned to Ford in his chair. "Just a hazy dream?"

"Dude, I've been a freak for the past few years," He smiled, "everything was hazy to me."

"We're now going over the Atlantic Ocean." He smiled. "The IOA decided to make Atlantis a drop off point for supplies that could fit through the gate." They passed into a cloud and everything went white for a few seconds. "You're going to be shocked." John smiled as the cloud passed and Fords mouth dropped.

Huge trains of supplies, led by puddle jumpers, were in a line headed towards a single gate located on the top of Atlantis. It looked out of place, but so did all the large tubes that seemed to run off from each of her piers and into the ocean below. She had not lost any of her glory, and Ford felt sorry for it.

He could see traffic filling the sky above it in two large columns that stretched out to the horizon. Each was moving in opposite direction to the other. John took them then waited right beside the open gate for the train to go through. When it had passed, he moved sideways quickly and headed straight in.

"A lot's happened while you were gone mate."


	4. Chapter 4

"Wow," Ford moaned as two hundred soldiers stood outside the base in four squares of fifty men. They were each wearing armour that looked like Kull armour. He'd seen pictures of them. The armour was different than the Kull's because it was coloured in camouflage and each soldier had a sharp edge on one arm and a shocker on the other. On their backs was a strange kind of rifle and in their left holster was a pistol like Ronon's. In their right holster was a radio. Their helmets were more rounded and had a dark blue taint in the form of a viewing screen. They each saluted as John walked in front of them. Like a Mexican wave. When he passed the final line and turned, the entire army went to the right ninety degrees.

He got onto a podium and said, "At ease." As one, they each stamped one foot down like a cannon going off. Ford thought he felt the vibrations hit him. "Stand easy." The soldiers eased up a little and Sheppard continued, "Fell free to ask questions while I'm talking, but put your hand up. Is that understood?" He smiled as the army stiffened, came to attention and each shouted, "Yes sir!" with a Dutch accent, then returned to at east, and standing easy. "As you know, most of our army has recently tried to sabotage the base and then escaped in some trust vessels. We were left with two thousand troops after that, and it wasn't enough. We are glad to welcome you to Pegasus Command."

A soldier, Ford hadn't seen before, appeared from the centre of the army and walked out. His armour was spiked in places, probably to show he was in charge. He stopped in front of the podium and saluted, then started to talk to Sheppard. His head bobbed up and down every now and again as he talked. He finally saluted and marched back to the centre front of the army, then performed an about turn to face the podium again.

"I must say, regrettably, while you are here, the USSF's command system will replace your current ranks. It gets too complicated with so many different super powers in one place." Sheppard said. "The IOA's orders, not mine." He said to clarify. "Your missions will be sent to your commander when we have them. We have stopped missions to gather our forces and to reorganise patrols of allied systems. And as a final note: Lunch is at two today." The army stiffened and their commander walked out in front of them. He shouted something in Dutch and, with a mutual stamp, saluted. They broke up into a crowd and walked off the parade square.

John walked back rubbing in throat. "I need to get that mike fixed." He croaked. "I'm not used to shouting so loud for so long."

Ford smiled. "How many troops are on base now?"

"About ten thousand." He replied casually. "None of them now who a shadow is and where they are. They know that there is a shadow army, but they don't know how big it is. People think it's our secret police." He chuckled. "That's the seventh Army from the Netherlands. In a week." He stretched. "Oh, and I never told you they made me general for the base, did they?"

"Really?" Ford smiled. "That deserves a beer." He saw a soldier of the army walk by. "What are those rifles?"

"New," Sheppard said. "Basically small rail-guns. Like the ones we used to defend Atlantis, but smaller and less powerful. They're standard arms now."

"Wow." Ford looked around the hallway. "Do you know where John Mellor is?"

"Should be on-" John cringed. "He next to me."

"Good welcoming speech." The disembodied voice of John Mellor said. "What do you want Ford?"

"Do you have a sister?" Ford asked. He didn't receive an answer straight away. "No, I mean, I met someone on Earth called Katie Mellor."

"Oh," He chuckled. "Yeah, she's a nurse. Why?"

"I met in the hospital." Ford added.

"What'd you do?"

"He died." Sheppard answered. "Heart attack."

"Ah, normally dead people don't wake up." He tapped Ford on the shoulder with an invisible hand. "You ascend or something?"

"No, came back to life." Ford said. "Then a doctor tried to turn me over to the authorities and she helped me get out of the hospital."

"She's been looking for a way to join the army." He said glumly. "Why'd they have to ask for medics?"

"Because we only have seventy medics on base." John answered. "And there are over ten thousand troops on the base now."

"Right." He said. "I'm not really used to the halls being so full again."

"You've got to hand it to 'em," Ford hadn't heard this voice before. "They know how to kill in style."

"Yeah Alex," John said. "Now keep moving."

"Yes sir." Alex said.

"Can I join them?" Ford asked.

"I'll see what I can do." John headed off to his office and Ford looked around. John's head appeared from around a corner. "Come on." His head disappeared.

"Coming!"

"This is a joke right?"O'Neil asked the guards as he was trying to get into the SGC. "I'm General O'Neil!"

"General O'Neil has already signed in sir." The guard replied as he showed Jack a list of names on a screen. "Three minutes ago."

"Did you see me?" O'Neil asked.

"No, I was sorting out a kid at the fence." He sighed. "he kept throwing stones at me, so I chased him away." He smiled. "I haven't seen him since."

"Damn that kid!" O'Neil said as he remembered of his clone. "Let me in."

"I can't do that sir." The soldier said. "You'll have to put your finger on the scanner."

O'Neil did as he was told and it went green.

"Oh, uh, must have been a glitch in the system." He pressed a button. "Come in General."

"Thank you!" he said while throwing his dignity away by running towards the lift.

He'd reached that age, where he looked just like O'Neil did when he was twenty. His faster aging helped along the process. He received a few looks and murmurs of, "He's done something off world I bet." Carter turned around a corner and he stopped.

Her shoulders came down and she sighed. "How did you get in?"

"Guess there's no point now." He said giving up. "The air force really didn't care much for me after high school." He looked around.

"Oh great, double trouble." Carter face-palmed her head. "Jack, you remember Jack right?"

Jack's, the 'real' one, face was one of 'not funny'. "Guards." He said. "Escort O'Neil out of the complex."

They looked at each other, shrugged, and then took the older Jack by the shoulders.

"Not me!" He said breaking them off. "Him." He pointed to Jack.

The guards looked from one Jack to the other and smiled. They walked off and left.

Older Jack watched them leave.

"Jack," Both looked at carter. "Older Jack-"

"No! Real Jack." He corrected pointing to his chest. "Fake Jack." He pointed to Younger Jack.

"I'd prefer younger." Young Jack said. "And why don't you like me?"

"Because you copy everything I do!"

"I am you!"

"Oh shut up both of you!" Carter said as she stepped between them. "Younger Jack, you do you want?"

"To join the USSF."

Carter and Jack, Older Jack, exchanged looks.

B

"What are doing here so fast?" John Mellor asked his sister as she stepped through the gate. The recruits looked around to see where the voice had come from. He whispered in her ear, "I'm cloaked at the minute on patrol, see me in the mess hall in one hour."

She looked around and waved her arms in the direction he had been.

"Nice going, you nearly blew our cover." Alex said as he continued on down the hallway from the gate. "So that's your sister?"

"You're too old for her." John replied.

"How old is she?" Alex asked as they walked through a door.

"Twenty nine." He replied.

"I'm only thirty two."

He knew John was giving him one of those looks which said 'you look bad for that age'.

"How old are you?" Alex asked.

"Thirty two."

"I got through the ranks quickly." He added, "With my father's help." quickly.

"Oh, you're one of those Colonels." John said half surprised half laughing. "Well I had to do it the old fashioned way."

"Yeah, well, I'm good at my job." He smiled behind his helmet. "And I was in the SAS."

"Ah, that kind of father."

"Yeah, woke up at four in the morning when I was six to do three laps of the field block. When I was twelve I was doing about seven times that far. By the time I joined the SAS I could lap our training officer twice each time we went around the base."

"You never told us about this." John said.

"It's kind of a touchy subject for me." He admitted. "Because I outdid everyone on the base, I had about two friends the whole time." His tone went grim. "Both of 'em died on our first mission."

"What happened?" John asked.

"Well, I'm not really allowed to tell you." He sniggered. "It was a secret mission."

"Ah,"

"Yeah, I'll make it short for you, and for me." He added in his head. "We were taking cover behind an upturned car when both of them were hit with a nail grenade. Frank died first, but Ben kept screaming. He had about ten nails in his chest, some of them had gone through the other side. I crawled off before another one could land nearby. Ben's last words to me were 'traitor'."

"Sorry, I, uh," He swallowed so loud Alex heard it over the radio. "Did you complete the mission?"

"Yeah, I had major leg wounds at the end of it. It's why I can't go as fast I used to." They turned into the Shadow's Operation Room, SOR, or as most called it, SWORE (Shadow's Worst Operations Room Ever) Because it belonged to Alex and Lauren's team. "See you later."

"You need to return the-" Alex was already a meter from the door and didn't catch the last of his words. He'd go on the roof to think things over. No one was ever up there.

"Well, it's not much of a date, but it'll do." Lauren said as they sat on top of the centre base. "At least you tried."

"Yeah well, I sneaked a few cans from the mess hall cooler." Edd chuckled. "Not many people know how to get up here you know."

"Yeah, I thought you were crazy when you said where we were going." She looked back at the APBW array's escape hatch. "I never knew that alarm was broken."

"It's easy to disable." He said. "Me and Alex put a playing card over the sensor."

"Yeah well," She started opening a can of beer. "It's a nice view."

"Better when you're around." Edd flirted with a smile.

"That's really cheesy." Lauren joked.

They both looked over as the escape hatch opened. It closed and they heard footsteps then one of the cans hovered up.

"You could have told me it was a three way date." Lauren mused. "I've never seen you drink before Alex."

"Bad memories." His invisible head became visible as he took his helmet off. "And, I am British. We invented the stuff." His head bobbed down as his body either crouched or sat. "Sorry to interrupt, but the others were taken." He said.

They looked to the other side of the base, over near the horizon, and saw two little dots against the fading sun. They looked to the only other visible Array and saw another two dots against a cloud.

"I guess I'm not so original." Edd said as he burped.

"At least you're not doing what the others are doing." Alex said as he took another gulp.

"Yeah, we just wanted a chill." Lauren said as she put her arm over Edd's shoulders and pecked him on the cheek. "Did you see the new arrivals?"

"Yeah, one of them's Mellor's little sister." Alex said. His voice always seemed to stay the same tone, a deep saddening one. His eyes flashed back and forth as if reading memories. He shook his head and looked away from them for a second. "See you." He got up and headed back to the escape hatch.

"Alex, wait!" Edd said. Alex stopped and turned his head halfway to face Edd. Edd got up and walked over. He started to whisper in his ear.

Alex whispered back.

Edd patted him on the back and whispered something else.

It was returned by something equally as quiet.

They went on like this for about ten minutes before Alex went down the ladder with a hint of a smile.

Edd came back and sat down next to Lauren.

"What's wrong with him?" Lauren asked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you." He said in the tone Alex had used before. "He and John had a conversation about his time in the SAS."

"Oh, did he loose someone close to him?"

"Yeah, Frankie, his girlfriend."

"I can't activate the shield sir!" The gate technician, Walter, shouted. "Someone's hacked the system!"

"Security to gate room!" Jack and Jack mutually cried as Older Jack pressed the button for the intercom. Older Jack said, "Stand over there."

A human female walked through the gate and stood in the centre of the room. She had long light brown curly hair and was wearing a brown leather, what looked like leather anyway, top with darker shaded leggings. She looked around in confusion then saw the people in the control room. Guards ran in and she was surrounded by troops.

"Who are you?" Jack asked sternly.

"Larrin," She replied in a brave tone. "Captain the Travelers' generation ship Legacy."

"How did you pass our gate shield?"

"I don't know." She replied. She seemed honest. "I walked through and found myself here."

"Do you know where you are?" Jack, the younger one, asked.

"No, but I think I can guess." She replied. "The tau'ri's Pegasus Command."

"You're half right." Jack said. How did she manage to travel to another galaxy? "This is the Tau'ri home world." Carter gave him a puzzled look. "Welcome to Earth."


	5. Chapter 5

"John, we have a gift for you." Jack, Real Jack, was saying over the radio. "Somehow she ended up in our galaxy."

"Who is it?" John's voice asked.

"Her name's Larrin I think." Jack said. "Said she was in command of a generation ship by the name of Legacy and it belongs to the-"

"Travelers," John finished for him. "Send her through."

"Ok, you can tell me about it later." He looked at Fake Jack, "I have unfinished business here."

"Ok." The radio cut out.

Jack pressed the intercom to the gate room. "You have permission to head to Pegasus again."

She walked through the gate and the wormhole closed.

"Now then, what about me?" Fake Jack asked as he clapped Real Jack on the shoulder.

Jack sighed, this would be a long day of paperwork and confusion, and more paperwork, then more confusion, and the paradox would continue until one of them either died, or went MIA.

"How the hell did you reach my home planet?" John asked Larrin as she walked through the gate. "I thought you were looking for safe planets in our territory?"

"We were." She said smugly. "Its just we went deeper than you expected."

John rolled his eyes. "Alex, John, Lauran and Edd, stand down."

Four armoured soldiers uncloaked before her eyes. They stood like statues then turned around like an uncoordinated rabble and headed through each door in pairs of two. They cloaked just as they turned a corner.

"What was that about?" She asked as John walked down a ramp to the gate room.

"Protocol." He returned. "They're, well, our secret police."

"Not very secret anymore." She countered. "Why do you have them?"

"Politics." He said simply. "And most of our army went rouge recently."

"Rouge?" She asked in disbelief. "I thought you said you had over ten thousand troops here?"

"We did, and we've recuperated our losses," He assured, "but most of the army left and went to a rouge element called the trust."

"Oh," She realised the irony of them being called, the trust, when they were backstabbing traitors. "What have they done with them?"

"We have no idea." He admitted. "But we do have a planet under our protection which was why I was trying to get your attention."

"Really?" She asked in surprise of the sudden change in conversation. "You mean it?"

"Yeah." He said smiling slightly. "But we need to know figures."

"Figures?" She asked. "Like population?"

"Yeah, and ships, and what resources you have." He was beginning to think he was on dodgy territory, but he really wasn't, she did like to see him confused though. "And what you'd need to survive."

"The extra help would be appreciated, but all we really need is defence." She reassured him it wasn't dodgy territory. "To population, I'll have to find out."

"Just do me a favour, and keep this with you." He handed over a device which looked ancient. "It's a subspace transmitter. It's also a communications device."

She looked at it and smiled. "Ok."

"How are you going to get back to your people?" John asked, getting serious.

"I have a locator beacon." She said as she pulled out the device from her pocket. "It's able to be picked up by a relay ship in a radius of two-hundred light-years."

"Ok." He took something else from his pocket. "This is so you can get passed the shield."

"Thank you." She looked around. "How long do I have to stay here?"

He shrugged. "As long as you like or until one of your ships comes to pick you up." He looked to the control room at something then back to Larrin. "Are you planning on staying?"

"Well, seeing as I'm here, I may as well." She looked around. "Can I have a tour?"

"Sure," He motioned to the left corridor away from the gate. "Right this way."

She couldn't believe she was in the Tau'ri Pegasus Command.

Alex was sitting on the roof, again, drinking a can of beer. Being cloaked came with its advantages. Edd was sitting next to him with a can as well. They were on the east APBW array looking at the mountains further away. It was very calming up here, at least when they weren't test firing the APBWs that was.

Which, gladly, they weren't. It was quiet here. Apart from the stray gunshot from the training facility. The sun was in the middle of the cloudless blue sky. The mountains were in time-dilation to help with the mining process. You could be in there for years, and only a week would have gone by in the real world.

The problem was exactly that. With the mining robots with no controllers, they were not functioning properly. When one source was depleted, they would wait for which to go to next. Sometimes that would take years in their world. And so they grind to a halt. Men had been sent in to repair them a week ago, and they were going back today to do the exact same thing. It was cycle which would go on for a while.

"Alex, you there?" Alex's mike sounded John Sheppard's voice. "We have a huge problem and I'm guessing your on the APBW array, get off now!"

The array cover doors started to open. "Shit." Alex and Edd swore mutually.

They clambered down the escape hatch as four of the APBWs fired toward the sky.

"Six hives?" Sheppard asked. "Get the Daedalus up there now!"

"One hive is neutralised." The base's weapons officer reported. "A second is down."

"Raise shields!" John shouted as he saw the slight haze of blue in the sky. "Fire missiles and get the rail guns on any fighters that try to get past."

"Yes sir."

The shields lapped out over the base in small domes and the blue started to become bigger.

"Another hive is disabled." The weapons officer informed. "Last three hives are, retreating?" He added slightly confused.

"Retreating?" John looked out and saw the blue come to a halt on the shield surface. Sparks flew out from the location of the hit like shrapnel. "What in gods name are those?"

Black dots fell from the shields and headed down to the base. They stopped in the air before the ground then started to glow.

"Section shielding now!" John ordered.

Smaller bubbles formed inside the larger bubbles, ten was an average for each bubble. The black dots, now blue glowing lights, started to grow in size.

"Rail guns are firing sir." The weapons officer said. "They seem to have shields around them."

"Shields?" John croaked. "Wraith, use shields?"

"The shields are growing sir, but are starting to weaken."

John watched as the shield bashed against another. It stayed in the same place and started to push the other shield down.

"Evacuate all personnel away from that shield dome." John ordered.

"Get your weapons ready gents." Alex ordered as he looked at his gate team. "And lady." He added to Lauren.

Alex pulled on his helmet, like the other three did. He activated his cloak and walked through the hall. This was where one of the containers had landed. They knew another had landed somewhere else, and that the other one was sitting above them.

His team followed and they turned heat sensors on. One of the pods was a head of them. One lone wraith stood doing something to it. Another appeared from a corner followed by six or so. Seven more walked out from a room. They grunted something to the wraith working over the pod. He growled back something they didn't catch.

Two more wraith appeared. Alex noted none of them were drones. They were males. And the one working over the pod was slightly more tattooed than the others.

"Do we shoot?" John asked over the mike.

"Not yet."

He regretted those words. The pod glowed slightly and a line of wraith appeared from a culling beam. They moved out of the way and another line appeared. For each commander ten drones were sent out. There were now about two hundred wraith standing in the corridor.

"We should have killed him when we had the chance." Edd growled. "Our job just became a hell-of-a-lot worse off."

Alex stared at the wraith working over the pod. He stood and turned to the commanders standing around him.

This they heard. "All two hundred and ten of you shall feed today my brethren." He paused for effect. "The humans in this facility have kill thousands, if not millions of our brothers. Today we return the favour." Cheers raged from the wraith. They must have been down each corridor in crowds. "They have burned our ships, broken our queens, destroyed our bases. But now we shall destroy them!" Cheers raged through the hall.


End file.
